Pancetta is the original bacon. Amazingly enough it is a very easy thing to make at home.
This pancetta recipe is a classic example of refrigerator charcuterie that has consistent results and requires no special set-up.
The Roman legionnaires were snacking on this delectable meat candy in between battles.
This traditional pork belly preparation can be made either as a slab (stesa) or roll (arrotolata), as you prefer.
Here is the recipe we used:
Pork belly (we used two 5 lb. pieces) 10 lb. (4.5kg)
Garlic, minced 4 cloves
InstaCure #2 (0.25% of meat weight) 2 tsp (11g)
Kosher salt (3% of meat weight) 3/4 cup (120g)
Dark brown sugar 2 tbsp (30g)
Black pepper, coarsely ground 4 tbsp (8g)
Juniper berries, crushed 2 tbsp (10g)
Bay leaves, crumbled 4 (4g)
Nutmeg, freshly grated 1 tsp (2g)
Fresh thyme 4 or 5 sprigs
Here are some beauty shots of the end product:
We started out with two 5lb pieces of pork belly that we bought at our nearby Whole Foods supermarket
We ground up the spices and the curing salt together and rubbed the bellies with the mixture:
We placed each belly into a Ziplock plastic bag and put in the refrigerator for two weeks
After the two weeks we washed off the excess cure and spices. Don’t mind the burn marks on our chef-trainees arms he didn’t get them making Pancetta.
We rolled one of the bellies and tied it with butchers twine (say it with me) Arrottolata! and left the other one flat Stesa style.
The bellies are ready to go into UMAi Dry at this point. UMAi Dry is a special membrane material that will allow the pancetta to age in our home fridge. We have done this pancetta a couple of times inUMAi Dry and each time the results were excellent and consistent.
UMAi Dry looks like a regular plastic bag, but it has magic properties of letting the moisture out and letting oxygen in, while protecting the meat and its surroundings from mold, odors and other undesirable things.
UMAi Dry is applied with a vacuum sealer, but it is not a vacuum bag. All we have to do is to get the bag into the contact with the moist meat surface and it a few days, the bag will stick to the meat and it will age/dry perfectly.
Here it is all sealed up in UMAi Dry and ready to go rest in the fridge for 6-8 weeks.
Yea I know, thats a long time, but all good things are worth the wait.
Voila! 7 weeks later we have a delectable hunk of meat candy. Best served thinly sliced on a slicer we like the Chef’s Choice Model 632 slicer with non-serrated blade.
